GOP frosh come up short on cash

House GOP freshmen – many of them political novices who rode to victory on an anti-Washington wave – are discovering they aren’t very good at one of the capital’s most pressing chores: raising money.

Newly released third-quarter fundraising reports brought some sobering news for many of the newcomers. In some cases, it was even ugly.

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“You have a lot of freshmen who have never been in politics. So a lot of us are doing something we have never had to do before,” Florida Rep. Steve Southerland told POLITICO shortly after his report hit the Federal Election Commission’s website. “It’s not that natural a thing, asking people for money. Especially now, people are struggling.”

For GOP strategists tasked with defending the 25-seat majority next year, a few members stand out for their less-than-impressive hauls. Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold, a radio talk show host before winning his seat, raised just $102,000 over the last three months. North Carolina Rep. Renee Ellmers, a former nurse, reported a paltry $97,000. Southerland, who had operated a family-owned funeral home before winning his Florida Panhandle-area seat, had an even tougher time, taking in $90,000.

House GOP aides say they knew all along that this quarter would be especially tough for the freshmen. The summer months are a notoriously difficult time to get donors to open their checkbooks, and the heated debt-ceiling debate kept members away from fundraising.

Still, a bad fundraising period is like a bad political report card for first-termers, and can go a long way toward determining their electoral fortunes. It’s often during the winter months that prospective challengers – both Democrat and Republican – decide whether to launch bids, and how much money an incumbent has raised can play a major role in their decisions. A few freshmen who have struggled with fundraising, Indiana Rep. Larry Bucshon and Tennessee Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, have already drawn serious primary opponents.

“I think anytime a candidate shows they are missing a beat in preparing for the next cycle, there is the real potential for their standing to be raised on the target list,” said former Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Phil English, a Washington-based lobbyist who is active on the fundraising circuit and who is informally advising some freshmen. “If a candidate comes in with a slow quarter, it may signal that they are not running for reelection or are running into problems.”

Fundraising is frequently cited by members as one of the most difficult and unpleasant parts of the job. But for many of the 89 House GOP freshmen, it’s particularly hard.

While many of their colleagues came to Congress with years of political experience and deep fundraising connections, much of the new class of House Republicans is just learning how the Washington money system works.

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CORRECTION: Corrected by: Naira Ruiz @ 10/17/2011 09:45 AM
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of freshmen benefitting from the NRCC's Patriot Program fundraisers and the amount the events raised.